[FSF] New Zealand in urgent danger of software patents

[Peter Brown]

The director of the End Software Patents campaign Ciaran O'Riordan
writes to warn of an imminent threat of software patents in New Zealand:


Dear Free Software Supporters,

The New Zealand government has proposed allowing unlimited software
patenting.  They are accepting comments until July 2nd, but
participation from the people who will be harmed seems very low.

The details of how to participate can be found on swpat.org:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/New_Zealand

Participation of the free software community is particularly important
because, although SME federations and consumer rights groups are
sometimes the most influential lobbies against software patents, it's
often the free software community that raises awareness of the issue and
gets these other groups moving.  The July 2nd deadline is very close, so
work is needed now.

We thus urge you to participate in the consultation, but also to raise
awareness on blogs, news sites, and among email groups, and to contact
related interest organisations and companies to ask them to get involved
too.

Some other swpat.org pages that may be useful:

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Organising_a_campaign
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Software_patents_harm_SMEs
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Studies_on_economics_and_innovation
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Harm_to_standards

Ciaran O'Riordan
Director End Software Patents
Tel: +32 487 64 17 54 email: ciaran [at] fsf.org

end.

-- 
Peter T. Brown
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
www.fsf.org www.gnu.org